TEXAS HOUSE OKS SANCTUARY CITY BAN

The Republican-controlled Texas House has approved a strict ban on sanctuary cities, seeking to empower law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law against anyone they detain, and also threatening to jail police chiefs and sheriffs who refuse to do so.

Texas would be the first state in the nation in which police chiefs, sheriffs, and other officials could face removal from office, criminal charges, and imprisonment for not helping to enforce federal immigration laws.

The bill also would allow Texas to withhold funding from county and local governments for acting as sanctuary cities.

Texas is poised to pass an anti-sanctuary cities law regardless of what happens nationally with regard to President Trump’s executive order to withhold federal funding to sanctuary cities across the nation.

The Texas proposal is needed to “keep the public safe and remove bad people from the street,” said Republican Rep. Charlie Geren of Fort Worth, its House sponsor.